Rewarding performance doesn’t work. Employees are not rats in a cage pushing a lever for a pellet. Rewards promised, whether bonuses, raises, or carrots, have a short-lived, minimal, and, sometimes negative, impact on productivity.

People work hardest when they care about the results, when the activity fits their natural inclinations, when they are challenged, when they are learning, and when they have made a personal commitment. In other words, people work hardest when their motivation springs from within. 

Promised rewards may drag attention away from intrinsically motivating tasks for short periods of time, but rarely with the same degree of enthusiasm, determination, and productivity.

Furthermore, promising rewards for intrinsically motivating activities can actually damage that motivation. If you haven’t felt it yourself, you’ve probably heard others complaining about losing interest in an enjoyable activity once it becomes part of their job, something they have to do, or something governed by others, whether a coach, teacher, manager, or the law.

You and your employees will be happier and achieve better results if you concentrate on providing decent and competitive salaries accompanied by jobs that fit natural inclinations and appetite for challenge and responsibility.

Reward programs, on the other hand, direct too much energy and time away from creating value for which customers are willing to pay, while doing nothing to improve results despite leaving many feeling angry, cynical, jealous, and/or insufficient.